Reckless homicide charges were dismissed Thursday in the case of a cognitively impaired Milwaukee man whom a judge ruled police had improperly led to make a confession — the only evidence against him.

Eddie Gill, 19, will be released from jail, where he's been held for 13 months.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Williams told Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Stephanie Rothstein that her Feb. 25 decision to prohibit use of Gill's recorded statement was reviewed by several people in his office and all agreed there were no legal grounds to appeal it. And without Gill's statement as evidence, "We don't feel we can proceed any further at this time," he said.

He asked that the case be dismissed without prejudice, meaning Gill could be recharged with the crime if police develop evidence he was responsible for the fatal shooting of Jordin Crawley, 21, on Feb. 3, 2013, outside the Futuristic Lounge on the city's south side.

Gill's attorney, John Birdsall, asked that the dismissal be with prejudice, meaning he could not be recharged. That would be unusual in a case where a jury has not yet been sworn.

Williams told the court he had spoken with Crawley's mother about the dismissal.

"She's disappointed, but understands," he said, adding she also expressed disappointment with police shortcomings in regard to the investigation of her son's death.

Williams also promised that the case, which Birdsall contends went dormant once police got Gill's statement, will not languish.

"It will be investigated, and investigated the proper way," Williams said.

Birdsall later called it unfortunate that police stand by the investigation, and said Gill hopes detectives involved in his case are disciplined and that interrogation training is improved. Birdsall called the police conduct in the case outrageous and said it should be condemned.

Arrested for obstruction

There was no surveillance video outside the Futuristic Lounge, but a camera from a nearby gas station showed Gill in the area. He voluntarily went to talk with detectives Feb. 12, 2013, and told them about being at the bar and seeing his friends outside after closing. Some of his story was deemed inconsistent, and he was arrested on charges of obstruction.

In the video, Detective James Hensley tells Gill he failed the polygraph, and that other people were saying he was a shooter.

More than 140 times, Gill says he didn't shoot anyone or have a gun that night, but over time seems to try to accede to Hensley's varied suggestions of what might have happened. He explains he is "slow," describes medications he takes, and says he can't read or write, and used his disability check money to buy a gun on the street for $100.

In her ruling to suppress those statements, Rothstein noted that Gill, on two prior occasions before the Crawley case, had been found incompetent, and that he was again found incompetent 12 days after his arrest.

During the 13 months he's been in custody, he spent four months at the state mental hospital in Mendota and was later ruled competent to proceed in his case.

The judge also referred to the recordings of four different interrogations by five detectives over three days. Gill clearly says he wants a lawyer, but the next day is told he can either have a polygraph or wait for a lawyer.

Rothstein found Gill would have interpreted that as an either-or proposition, when in fact he could have waited for a lawyer and still chosen to take a polygraph later.

She also found that detectives did not "scrupulously honor" Gill's request for a lawyer.

Earlier in the case, she also had criticized detectives for not writing up reports of interviews with key witnesses until more than a year later, just days before the scheduled start of Gill's trial, a problem that had come up in other homicide cases in recent months.

On Thursday, Rothstein clarified that her decision to bar Gill's statements were not related to the late reports, and that she has not "prejudged the merits of the state's case at all."